Blasted Trees!
“T’was Avarice with his harpy claws… And Ruin came.” (FNCMunday,1776)
It starts. Men walk the lines. Tripods and triangulation. White Stakes driven, Pink Ribbons tied. No, not Oooh Aaah Glen McGrath’s, rather a cancer in the landscape. Then plot the Lot. But, “BLASTED TREES!” stand in protest, blocking the way. Let’s rid the Lot of Nature.
Metal clawed beasts, caterpillar’s rattling tracks. The trees, stand resolute, alive, animate but silent. Hydraulics power over with rip, saw, and crack. The swish of the falling SheOak branch, writhing, reverberating, last throes on the sandy ground. Dragged to the pile to dry before fire. ‘Many Springs unmade in a fateful day’.
Fencing the blocks with treated pine and star droppers. All with ocean views; there’s the road, when the flood comes, storm water drains. Easter’s here, agent on site. Let’s flog some blocks to punters on holiday. Offers have been received. BUT…. It’s not legal.
17 Jan 23: 9 Councillors agreed. Go – clear all vegetation from the Lot – all trees, shrubs and grasses – leave the grey earth bare. As there are no threatened or endangered species present, all species and associated habitats can be destroyed.
Blasted Trees – no more. Oh, the Anthropocene.
Jim Andrew
2023
Acrylic paint on canvas